ID: 723
Date: 1947
Title: Cry baby Cry
Gender: Female 
Classification: Taunt 
Rhyme: 

Cry, baby, cry,
Poke your finger in your eye,
Tell your mother it wasn't I
Cry baby cry.

(NZ ex UK, 1947)

--
 
Background Info: Discussion in Opie, 1967:186-188.
Also Sutton Smith, 1959:97:

Cry, baby, cry, 
Put your finger in your eye,
And tell your mother,
It wasn't eye.

==

Used in John Updike's novel "Couples", p.83.
"Cry-baby, cry-baby, sit-and-wonder-why-baby."

==

Onwuchekwa, 2003:109 records variations from urban black America:

Cry, baby, cry,
Stick your finger in your eye.
See the water fly,
Cry until you die.

Cry, baby, cry,
Stick your finger in your eye,
Tell, tell, ring the bell.

==

From Withers, 1948:114:

Cry, baby, cry,
Stick your finger in your eye;
If your mother asks you why,
Tell her that you want some pie.

==
 
Keywords: unpopular children 
Location: NZ (ex UK) 
Group size: 2 
Incidence: 1